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Ellie's Secret
'' Ellie's Secret ''is the ninth book in the Middle School Experience series. It tells the story of Ellie's fear of the dark and her desire to hide it from her friends so she isn't judged. Unfortunately, some of the girls are starting to notice her weird behavior. Ellie Jackson is a quiet and calm person, so it’s no surprise that none of her friends know that she is afraid of the dark. Unfortunately, she is forced to face her fear when she attends an overnight spring break trip with her friends. When she attempts to hide her secret, she becomes stressed out and ends up dragging down the trip for both her and a few of her friends. Will Ellie eventually confess to everyone about her embarrassing issue? Summary Ellie receives a phone call from Chloe inviting her to go to an amusement park called Water Wonderland near the end of their spring vacation from school. Ellie wants to go, but when she learns that the girls are staying in a hotel overnight, her excitement vanishes. She talks to her mom about her problem, and her mom suggests that Ellie get a ride home before nightfall, but Ellie rejects her offer because she believes that her going home early would seem suspicious to her friends. She decides to go to Water Wonderland, but she decides to work hard on keeping her fear secret from her friends. On Friday morning, Pauline drives Ellie, Alex, and Leah to the Winters' home so the girls can meet up with the rest of their friends to go to Water Wonderland. Chloe informs the girls that her mom had hired a limousine with a driver to drive them to Savannah, the city where the theme park is located. During the ride to Water Wonderland, Daphne, Ellie's best friend, talks about all the rides she is interested in going on, but she expresses a displeasure into going onto any rides or attractions that involved diving. Daphne tells Ellie about her fear of diving, and Ellie begins to feel bad after hearing that, knowing that her fear is babyish compared to Daphne's. She also notices that Daphne is talking to Chloe more and has more inside jokes with her and begins to feel jealous. The girls arrive at Water Wonderland, and after dropping off their bags at their hotel room and setting some ground rules, Shannon allows the girls to explore the park. The first ride that the girls decide to go on ends up being a tunnel ride. Ellie, who realizes that they have to be in the dark for a few minutes, begins to have a panic attack but feels embarrassed when Arabella notices her. When it is their turn to go on the ride, the girls pair up in groups of four to go on the ride. Ellie plans to be in Daphne's group, but Daphne decides to pair up with Maryann, Chloe, and Arabella. Regina, who isn't in anyone's group, offers to sit with Ellie during the ride. The conductor of the ride instructs everyone not to get out of their cars, and the ride begins. Ellie still feels upset that Daphne didn't include her in her group and finds that sitting with Regina is kind of boring. Ellie and Regina notice a little girl had come out of her car, and all of a sudden, the lights in the ride shut off and the cars stop moving. Chloe informs everyone that the ride will stay like this for ten minutes, and Ellie has another panic attack. The ride starts up again, but Ellie begins to resent coming on this trip. Ellie's confidence and good mood vanishes when she feels like all of her friends are judging her about her strange behavior on the tunnel ride. Eventually, most of the girls decide to go to the east wing of the park to go swimming in a swimming pool and sunbathe on the pool patio. Ellie does not change into her bathing suit and decides to sunbathe with Leah and Gail. Daphne decides to conquer her fear of diving and jump off a diving board. Ellie is happy and proud for her friend, but becomes jealous that she is unable to conquer her own fear. After a while, the girls meet up to have lunch at a cafe located near the pool area. Daphne talks to all of her friends about conquering her fear. Ellie learns that Chloe had also known about Daphne's secret and begins to feel jealous that Daphne had told Chloe something first. Ellie gets annoyed with Daphne's bragging and snaps at her, surprising her friends. Both Daphne and Chloe gang up against her, and Ellie yells profanity at them before storming away. Ellie decides to go to the parking lot to calm down and have some alone time. Alex and Leah find her and inform her that Shannon had the girls split up and find her. When they meet up with the rest of the group, Shannon berates Ellie for running off without a buddy. The girls decide to go back into the park, and Ellie reluctantly joins a group that Chloe and Daphne are in. At a gift store, Ellie decides to buy a pack of friendship bracelets for Daphne, but refuses to let Chloe pay for it. The girls decide to go to a field area to play a game that Daphne had made up. There, Ellie tries to apologize to Daphne for her attitude earlier, but Daphne rejects her. At four, the girls decide to go to their hotel room. Shannon instructs the girls to form groups of roommates for the hotel rooms. Ellie tries to join Daphne's group, but Arabella tells her that their group is full. Ellie decides to room with Regina, but knows that she would have had more fun in Daphne's group. At five, the girls go to the pool cafe to eat dinner. At dinner, Daphne ends up sitting at a table with Ellie, much to her dismay. When Ellie decides to get seconds for food, she trips in her chair and accidentally spills her drink on Daphne. Gail offers to lend Daphne another shirt. After dinner, the girls attend a water acrobat show. Because the seating is packed, Shannon has the girls split up. Ellie and Regina decide to sit with Arabella, Maryann, Chloe, and Daphne, but there ends up being no room for Ellie. Ellie ends up sitting behind them, but she feels ignored and left out. She feels like none of her friends care about her, and feels even less confident of revealing her secret. When the girls arrive back at the hotel, they change into their pajamas and hang out in Chloe's hotel room before bedtime. Ellie decides to confront Chloe about her behavior, but Chloe acts defensive and accuses Ellie of acting babyish. Ellie goes inside Chloe's hotel room and locks her out, but not before seeing Daphne gossip about her to a few other girls. Soon, Alex turns out the lights and turns on a flashlight so the girls can tell scary stories. After a few stories, Shannon tells the girls to go to bed. Ellie now realizes that she has to face her fear head-on. As the night goes on, Ellie is unable to fall asleep. When Ellie sees a glowing light near Regina, she loses it and begins screaming. All of her friends wake up and Ellie tells them about the lights. Regina tells her that the lights were coming from her MP3 player, and Ellie feels embarrassed about overreacting. Shannon wakes up and tells the girls to go back to bed, but condescendingly tells Ellie that she has nothing to worry about. Ellie finally decides to confess to her friends that she is still afraid of the dark. At first, the girls are silent when Ellie reveals her secret, but soon, Chloe, Daphne, and Leah begin laughing hysterically. A few other girls laugh, including Shannon. Regina tries to defend Ellie, but Ellie snaps, and tells Daphne she doesn't want to be friends anymore and calls Daphne out for her behavior. Daphne is shocked and hurt, but gets defensive, accuses her of being jealous of Chloe, and vents her annoyance about Ellie being a tag-along. Ellie then pushes Daphne to the ground and without thinking, tells Daphne that "the world would be better off without her". Daphne immediately runs out of the room and Ellie begins to regret her actions. Shannon demands that all the girls to go back to their rooms, but she gives Ellie a disapproving look. Regina tells Ellie that she had gone too far before going back to bed. Ellie ends up not being able to sleep because of last night's events. The next morning, she is physically and mentally exhausted and miserable. Regina wakes up and tells Ellie that she understood how she felt and confesses that she used to be afraid of dogs, much to Ellie's disbelief. Regina also informs Ellie that she is the first person to know her fear and advises her to try to face her fear head-on. She also tells her that Daphne will forgive her eventually. After the girls get ready for the day, they meet up with Gail, Jessie, Alex, and Leah in the elevator. There, Alex and Leah try to apologize to Ellie for laughing at her last night, but at first, Ellie ignores them. When they get to the lobby, Ellie finally decides to talk to her friends and explains that she was really hurt by their reactions. Alex and Leah convince her that her fear is understandable and vow to support her in it. They convince her to talk to Daphne, and Ellie tries to, but Daphne tries to avoid her. At the park, Ellie decides to hang out with Alex and Leah. They convince her to go on the tunnel ride, and with their report, she doesn't freak out as much. At lunchtime, Ellie and Alex end up sitting at a table with Chloe, Daphne, and Arabella. Chloe acts rude to Ellie, and Daphne is silent throughout lunch. They decide to go to the bathroom, and Alex and Arabella convince Ellie to apologize to them. Ellie follows Chloe and Daphne to the bathroom. At first, they are not pleased to see her there, but they decide to listen to Ellie's apology. Chloe confesses that she had acted rude because she was upset that Ellie was having a bad time, and Ellie apologizes for her negative attitude. Chloe leaves the bathroom to let Ellie and Daphne talk. Daphne tells Ellie that she was mostly upset that Ellie hadn't been supportive of her when she conquered her fear of diving, and Ellie apologizes for all the horrible things that she had said yesterday; the girls decide to be friends again. The girls, along with Shannon, decide to end their last day of the trip on a high note by going on all the rides together. Ellie convinces all the girls to go on the tunnel ride again. The girls end up having a good time, and Ellie ends up conquering her fear. Characters (in order of appearance) * Ellie Jackson * Chloe Winters * Pauline Jackson * Alex Sanders * Leah Harrison * Eliza Cantrell * Arabella Wilson * Jessie Sanchez * Maryann Chang * Shannon Winters * Daphne Carson * Gail Edwards * Regina Daniels Trivia *This book is loosely inspired by the book "Alex's Challenge" by Melissa J. Morgan *This book has been rewritten several times, but the final product was completed in December 2017. Category:Stories